His Sacrifice
by Tai94
Summary: Songfic. Hadrian, the wrong BWL, reflects on how much Harry had helped him through the years at his brothers funeral and regrets that he had never shown Harry how much he had been appreciated. Song: Wind beneath my wings. May or may not be a prelude.


**Disclaimer: Harry Potter isn't mine!**

**A/N: This is the first draft, since I don't have a beta.**

Hadrian opened his eyes to the chirping of the birds outside and the sunbeams touching his face from the parted curtains. It was a beautiful day, he thought, as he stayed where he lay, watching the fluffy clouds glide through the bright blue sky, too beautiful. Today would be his brothers funeral, his brother was dead. The world shouldn't be beautiful, the sky shouldn't be clear, not when Harry wasn't here to enjoy it.

Hadrian's hazel eyes darkened at the thought of his deceased brother, and his eyes flickered over to a framed picture at his bedside table. It showed him, being hugged and coddled by his mother and father as they laughed over a joke Father had made. Harry was in the picture, it was a family picture after all, but at the same time, he wasn't. While he, Hadrian, was being showered with affection, Harry was sitting in the side of picture, twiddling his thumbs as he gazed out the window. At first glance it would seem like the smaller of the siblings simply didn't care about his family, but then, under Hadrian's gaze, he saw Harry glance at the three other members of his family with pure sadness and maybe, just maybe, a tinge of hope.

Hadrian hadn't noticed it before, but now it stuck out in a way that made his heart ache so much. Because the scene in the picture replayed itself so many times that Hadrian had to watch his brother hope and be put down again, and again, and again.

If only they'd given him some love.

**Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.  
It must have been cold there in my shadow  
to never have sunlight on your face.  
You were content to let me shine, that's your way.  
You always walked a step behind.**

Hadrian should have seen the symptoms; the beginning of the depression, the way that his brother began to pull away from his family, permanently. he was the older brother after all, he should have stepped in. But he never had paid any attention to his brother before. He hadn't seen how Harry's emerald eyes dimmed when he saw the mountains of presents his brother had every birthday when Harry received none.

He hadn't seen Harry run crying back to his room when he'd seen that their birthday cake had only one name on it and it wasn't his.

Hadrian hadn't noticed Harry making his feather float in Charms while he ignored his own.

Hadrian should have realized that people can't do magic when they're unconscious; That way, the credit for saving the philosophers stone could have gone to Harry.

It was a wonder that Harry had never hated him. Hadrian knew that he had been a prat, too pompous, too boastful and too blind. He'd been a git, never a brother. And now it had cost him.

**So I was the one with all the glory,  
while you were the one with all the strength.  
A beautiful face without a name for so long.  
A beautiful smile to hide the pain.**

Maybe the reason why Harry never claimed credit for anything he'd done was because he'd already given up. He'd accepted that no matter what he did, I'd always be better, even when it wasn't true.

Maybe he thought that nobody would believe him. Maybe he thought that we'd just think that he was jealous of what I'd done and was trying to make himself look better. He'd accepted that he was second-best, that he wasn't worth anything beside his brother.

After all, Hadrian was worshipped and loved by everyone. Harry wasn't even spared a glance. They'd broken him. They'd taken away his innocence, and Harry, he'd found himself unworthy of anything but pain.

If Hadrian had only realized what his brother was going through, he would have done anything to heal him. To take the smaller boy in his eyes and try to make the shine return to those blank emerald eyes. But now, it was too late.

**  
Did you ever know that you're my hero,  
and everything I would like to be?  
I can fly higher than an eagle,  
'cause you are the wind beneath my wings.**

And now Hadrian walked down the long aisle towards his brothers coffin. Everyone became silent as he passed, their wary eyes watching him as he strode towards the only brother he ever had with a slump to his shoulders and half of his heart gone. At one time, they would have attacked him, reporters would have surrounded him with flashing cameras, each one stumbling over the other to ask him questions. But he was met with only silence.

Why would they be interested in him after all, he was but a fraud. An usurper of the title of the Boy-Who-Lived, when the one who rightly held the title, who had defeated Voldemort once and for all only a few days prior, laid dead in a white casket for all of them to see.

Harry was more powerful, more intelligent more compassionate, but he was never acknowledged. Always pushed aside, always forgotten, and now he was gone.

**It might have appeared to go unnoticed,  
but I've got it all here in my heart.  
I want you to know I know the truth, of course I know it.  
I would be nothing without you.**

Hadrian knew that everything he'd ever been given credit off was actually the work of his brother. He'd only snatched the spotlight away from his brother one too many times. Hadrian had only ever thought of fame and glory. If only he'd opened his eyes earlier. If only it didn't take something as heavy as his brother killing himself for him to see the truth.

He was nothing, without his brother, he would have been dead at the age of fifteen months. Without his brother, without Harry.

Harry, the true Boy-Who-Lived.

**  
Did you ever know that you're my hero?  
You're everything I wish I could be.  
I could fly higher than an eagle,  
'cause you are the wind beneath my wings.**

Hadrian reached Harry's coffin and took one slow shuddering breath. He peered inside, hoping for the impossible, hoping that somehow, his brother had managed to fight the killing curse again and he would rise from where he lay and greet them all with his soft smile.

But all that Hadrian saw inside the coffin was a pale corpse of a young boy. One who was so thin, so small and so fragile. All color had fled from the once cheerful teen. His untamable black hair now lay limp around his pale angelic face. His eyelids closed, never to reveal the green treasure beneath them ever again.

Hadrian gripped the edge of the coffin as tears began flowing down his face again. Seeing his brother like this made him reflect back to the day that his brother had died. He remembered it clear as day and it still haunted his nightmares.

_"I'm a horcrux." Harry said it so coldly that it made Hadrian flinch, it was as if Harry didn't care at all about himself. "is that what you're trying to tell me?"_

_"I'm afraid so, Harry." Dumbledore sighed, the twinkle gone from his blue eyes. Hadrian saw Harry's eyes flash from where he sat. But then, Harry was quickly smothered in a hug from Lily and his eyes disappeared from Hadrian's sight._

_"Oh my boy, my poor poor boy." Lily wailed as James joined the hug, rubbing Harry's back as he did so. For the first time in Hadrian's life, he felt left out. He hadn't known that it would hurt this much to be ignored. It was a wonder that Harry had survived through all his years experiencing this. _

_"Let go off me!" And then suddenly, Harry was up, and Lily was sprawled on the floor with her arms around James. Shock was evident on both of their faces._

_"Your boy?!" Harry asked softly, his fringe covering his eyes though the clenching of his fists by his side showed just how angry he was. "I was never your boy." He said coldly. His eyes lifted then, and at that time Hadrian wished that he didn't have to see that sight. Because Harry's didn't hold anger, sadness or any other emotion, they were simply blank. The eyes of one who had nothing, wanted nothing and was nothing. _

**  
Did I ever tell you you're my hero?  
You're everything, everything I wish I could be.  
Oh, and I, I could fly higher than an eagle,  
'cause you are the wind beneath my wings,  
'cause you are the wind beneath my wings.**

_Harry's eyes met Hadrian's for a second, and in that second, Harry's softened as they rested upon me. They told Hadrian that even then, even when he'd spent fifteen years in obscurity, even when he'd never acted like a brother towards Harry, Harry loved him. Harry cared. Even when he wasn't supposed to. Even when Hadrian knew that he didn't deserve it. _

_Lily was sobbing on the floor, having realized their mistake and James wrapped his arms around her, trying to soothe her with words that held no meaning, but Harry ignored them. He tore his gaze away from Hadrian's and he stared at Dumbledore._

_"I understand." Harry said. And to the shock of everybody in the room, he drew his wand and pointed it at his head._

_"Harry, NO!" Hadrian yelled as he shot up from his chair. Dumbledore rose swiftly from his chair as well, his face grim while Lily and James looked up at their son from the floor, both of their faces frozen in shock._

_"Why not?" Harry asked me softly, in the same cold voice that held no emotion. Harry's eyes travelled to rest on each person in the room as if searching for something in them, and not finding it, he shrugged. "I've got nothing to lose."And then, before anybody could move to stop him, Harry closed his eyes and smiled softly as he uttered the words that would end his life._

_"Avada Kedavra." _

**  
Oh, the wind beneath my wings.  
You, you, you, you are the wind beneath my wings.  
Fly, fly, fly away. You let me fly so high.  
Oh, you, you, you, the wind beneath my wings.  
Oh, you, you, you, the wind beneath my wings.**

The thing that hurt the most, Hadrian realized, as he stood over his brother's coffin, his entire body shaking in grief, was the cold hard fact that the killing curse shouldn't work without conviction. The killing curse wouldn't work if there wasn't any hate coming from the castor directed at the one to be killed, it needed pure hate. And if there was anything Hadrian was sure off about his brother. It was the fact that his brother hates himself. Hadrian wouldn't know why of course. But it made him realize how pure Harry's heart had remained.

Because even when the world had ignored him. Even when he'd been called many names. When he'd suffered like no wizard child should even have. He'd still loved Hadrian. He'd still hated himself. After all, why would anybody ignore him if he wasn't a mean ungrateful child.

Even minutes before his death, harry had never blamed Hadrian for anything bad that had happened in his short short life. Harry had loved him so much, and Hadrian will never have the chance again to show Harry that he loved him too.

Hadrian leaned over the white casket and brushed the stray locks away from Harry's forehead to reveal the lightning bolt scar that was engraved there. He pressed a soft kiss on his brothers cold forehead, and spontaneously broke down into deep, harrowing sobs. He poured out all that he had been keeping inside since he had watched his brother kill himself with a smile on his face, all his grief, anger and above all, the overpowering regret. He ran out of tears soon enough, and he drew away from his brother so that he could ignore that utter coldness radiating from Harry's body, and then whispered the three words that Harry had never heard in his entire life.

"I love you."

**  
Fly, fly, fly high against the sky,  
so high I almost touch the sky.  
Thank you, thank you,  
thank God for you, the wind beneath my wings.**

**A/N: SO what do you think? This is my first songfic so if any of you could tell me how to improve it would be gladly accepted! I've thought of a way to continue this (which includes time turners, hehehe, you get the drift) but I thought I'd give it a trial period first. For now this stands as a one-shot! **

**PLEASE REVIEW! **


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